On Friday, the justice department requested that a federal appeals court overturn a judge’s decision that had temporarily prevented it from reviewing a number of classified documents that had been seized by the FBI. They found them during a search of former president Donald Trump’s Florida residence earlier this month.
The department claimed that the judge’s hold, which was put in place last week, interfered with its investigation into the existence of top-secret information at Mar-a-Lago and hindered the “government’s efforts to preserve the nation’s security.” In addition, it requested the court to block a judge’s order requiring the department to turn over the confiscated sensitive materials to an impartial arbiter for his evaluation. Both requests were made in order for work to restart.
The department’s investigation into the storage of classified documents at the Florida property after Trump left office is probably going to be delayed by weeks as a result of U.S. district judge Aileen Cannon’s appointment of a so-called special master to review the documents and the ensuing legal squabble. It is yet unknown whether Trump, who has been building the framework for a potential presidential candidacy or anybody else may be indicted despite the justice department’s investigation into alleged violations of several statutes, including the Espionage Act.
The FBI claims that when executing a court-ordered search warrant at the residence on August 8, it took around 11,000 papers, including about 100 that had classified marks and were discovered in a storage room and an office. Weeks following the search, Trump’s attorneys requested that a special master be appointed by the court to conduct an impartial assessment of the records.
Last Monday, Cannon approved the request, appointing a special master to examine the documents and sift out any that might be subject to claims of an executive or attorney-client privilege. Until additional court orders or the end of the special master’s work, she ordered the department to stop using the secret documents for investigation purposes.
She appointed Raymond Dearie, the former top judge of the federal court in Brooklyn, to fill the position on Thursday night. She also declined to modify her earlier decision, noting persistent disagreements over the content of the papers that, in her opinion, required an impartial assessment by an impartial third-party arbiter.
The justice department informed the appeals court on Friday night that Cannon’s injunction “unreasonably interferes with the criminal investigation” by preventing investigators from “accessing the seized records to examine whether charges are merited.” Additionally, it hinders the FBI from determining which papers, if any, were revealed and to whom in its criminal investigation using the materials that were seized, according to the department.
The department also argued that there was no need for the arbitrator to study extremely sensitive materials that did not include issues of legal privilege, and requested the appeals court to overturn Cannon’s order that it supplies the newly appointed special master with the secret information.
The government owns those records, which were taken during a search that was permitted by the court, and the plaintiff has no claim to have them returned department lawyers wrote. They also claimed that there is no claim of personal attorney-client privilege involving the records. Furthermore, neither the plaintiff nor the court has provided any authorities that would support the idea that a former president might effectively rely on executive privilege to bar the Executive Branch from reviewing its own documents.
Dearie has been given the go-ahead by Cannon to finish his task by November 30 and to give the evaluation of the secret materials top priority. She instructed the justice department to provide the Trump legal team with “restricted access circumstances” to view the seized sensitive documents, which government attorneys argued on Friday was unnecessary and detrimental.
Written by Esteban Ruiz
Edited by Sheena Robertson
Sources:
The Guardian: Trump: US justice department appeals judge’s Mar-a-Lago investigation hold
National Review: DOJ Takes a Risk to Challenge Special-Master Order in Trump Case
CNN: Special master appointed to review documents from Mar-a-Lago search; DOJ request to resume criminal probe rejected
Top and Featured Image Courtesy of Herry Lawford‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Matt Johnson‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
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